HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- After the tornadoes roared through on April 27, it was all hands on deck for local public safety workers.

But how to feed them all?

"We were scrounging to figure that out," Huntsville Police Chief Mark Hudson said Thursday. "Then the good Lord sent along Chris Tucker."

Tucker, managing partner of Carrabba's Italian Grill at Parkway Place Mall, offered to cook up the food in the restaurant's coolers for police, firefighters, paramedics, sheriff's deputies, public works crews and anyone else involved with recovery efforts.

Between April 28 and May 3, when power was finally restored to most of Madison County, Carrabba's dished up an estimated 8,000 free meals in the mall's parking deck.

"It's part of what got us through the tornado," Hudson said. "It just filled a void we needed at the time we needed it most."

Carrabba's employees cooked from mid-morning until 11 p.m. daily, he said, then boxed up the leftovers so cops on third shift wouldn't go hungry.

"For them to step up and help public safety was just monumental," City Administrator Rex Reynolds said Friday. "We had so many assets on the ground that we couldn't allow them to take a supper break."

Hudson gave Tucker a public thank-you, as well as the police department's certificate of appreciation, at a recent Huntsville City Council meeting.